Pencils
by chinocoop81
Summary: “I always knew they’d end up together...When did they start realizing it themselves?” Sandy shrugged and said, “I don’t know, but Ryan’s always saying that it started and ended with a pencil.” RM AU Happy One Shot


**A/N I was bored and have had this idea in my head for let's see…two and a half years. So I finally sat down and made myself write it. Oddly the inspiration was asking my friend (who is a guy), for a pencil. So there you go. I hope you enjoy it. There is one part though that for all my Lollypops and Letters fans, is kind of a peak into what will happen. You have to find out who is the character and what is the spoiler. I just had to include it. R/R, thanks!**

It was a boring day in seventh grade science class. Marissa Cooper turned and glanced at her lab partner, Ryan Atwood, and saw that he was drawing something with his pencil instead of actually listening. She leaned a little closer so that she could see and he looked up and smirked at her. "May I help you?" He asked when the teacher went to their desk, leaving the class to work on its own. He sat back a little in his seat and just stared at her, his young blue eyes twinkling, a smile curled up on his adorable face. His hair was spiked at the end, cut short, just a few inches long, if even that.

"Um, well, I was hoping I could see what you were drawing…" She said, looking down at the picture. She was a very curious person, even if they always say that curiosity killed the cat. She tried to peak at what he was doing, but he quickly covered it with his binder. She pouted and he just laughed a little.

"Do you honestly think that I'm going to let you see my drawing? We've known each other for what…two weeks? And you've talked to me what…two minutes?" He raised his eyebrows and the laugh continued to escape from his amused mouth. "Besides, we're supposed to be working on something, remember? You should really stop distracting me…" Just then the teacher walked by and raised his eyes at the two of them. "Gosh, Marissa…always the troublemaker."

She just smiled politely at the teacher, then glared when he was gone. "I just want to see your stupid drawing. It was no big deal," She mumbled to herself, slouching in her chair a bit.

He just rolled his eyes and continued laughing. "Okay, let's get this whole thing done. What was the project again?" He asked, looking at her, now slightly serious. His eyes still held a trace of amusement in them though, so she still glared at him. He didn't seem effected at all by it though, and continued to look at her. For the quickest moment her eyes looked at his lips, those annoying lips in their annoying smile. Then she looked back at his face.

"We're supposed to do a food chain with these animals," She said, picking up a packet. "What color do you want our background to be? We have pink, purple, light blue, dark blue, green, yellow, white, and black." She looked at all the wonderful colors and couldn't choose which one to get. But then Ryan made her even more annoyed by choosing a white. "White is boring. Why do we have to use white?" She complained with a dramatic sigh.

"Because it's a quick, easy project and white will do," He replied, putting his name and her name in the back in readable cursive. He flipped it over and at the top neatly wrote, 'The Food Chain.'

"We couldn't have used a more creative name?" She asked, looking at the title. She groaned and said, "It's so boring."

"Well, do you have another name for it?" he asked looking over at her with challenging eyes. She looked into his blue ones and felt a small flutter in her stomach for some reason. She looked away from him and at the large paper. She shrugged, not able to come up with another name for the project. "Exactly my point," he said, a smug smirk on his face.

"Okay, someone's being a little too confident," She says with a roll of her eyes. She takes a stand of her hair and puts it behind her ear, and then says, "And besides, who says that you get to write anyways? I bet I have way better handwriting than you."

He shook his head and laughed. "Please, Miss I'm-Better-Than-Everyone-Else…I clearly should write this project down. Why don't you just cut the animals out of the packet and glue or something? I think that's a good job for you. You seem like a cutter…but not in the dark kind of way." He rolls his eyes at himself and I begin to laugh a little now.

"Miss I'm-Better-Than-Everyone-Else? How long did it take for you to come up with that?" I asked, taking the packet and cutting some of the animals out. "It's a pretty bad name, in my opinion."

He shakes his head and says, "Nope, it's a wonderful name. It really suits you. I think I'll call you that from now on." He looks at her and his eyes sparkle like a million diamonds in the sun. She loses her breath for just a moment there and quickly looks away.

"No, I don't think so. I refuse to let you call me that," She said, shaking her head and laughing softly. "If you call me that, then I get to call you something in return."

He nodded and contemplated in his mind. "Okay, I think I can deal with that. It's a fair trade. So, Miss I'm-Better-Than-Everyone-Else, what is my new nickname?" He looks at her with an amused grin.

She thought about it, wanting to come up with a really good one. Then she smiled widely and said, "Okay, you are now going to be referred to as, Mr. I-Can't-Have-Fun." She pats his head, the spikes of his hair tickling her hand. "I think it really fits you."

He rolls his eyes and says, "Whatever. Let's just get this project done, huh?" He looks at all the animals she's cut out and arranges them on the page, then smiles at the work he's accomplished. "There, you can glue now."

She looks at the animals and sighs, shaking her head. "Okay, a cheetah does not eat a bobcat, for one. And you have way too many animals on here. He said earlier that we didn't have to use all the animals from the packet, only a few to make sure we know which are in which category and stuff. And this is not right…." She pick up a piece and roll her eyes. "An alligator does not eat a mountain lion. They don't even live in the same area."

He smirks and says, "You're the one who wanted me to be creative. How's that for creative?"

"It's so creative that we'll fail," She says with a dramatic roll of her eyes.

"We won't fail. In case you haven't noticed, we're the teacher's two favorite students," He said, looking over at her with a serious face for once. He shrugs and says, "But if you want to do the rest of the project on your own…" He offers her an award winning smile.

"Fine, I will," She says, taking the paper from him. She reached out her hand and said, "Let me borrow your pencil."

He held it out of her reach and smirked at her. "Now why would I go and do something like that?"

She groaned and said, "Because I'm your partner and I need a pencil or we'll fail…"

"You really should stop the whole, 'we're going to fail' thing. It's not going to happen and it just bums people out," He said, still holding the pencil away from her. He twisted it in the air, teasing her.

"Ugh, would you stop being this way?!" She asked, folding her arms across her chest defiantly. "You're so annoying."

"I feel a new nickname coming," He said, starting to laugh. She rolled her eyes, completely annoyed yet utterly fascinated by him.

And that was how Ryan and Marissa became best friends.

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Five years later they were seniors in high school. Marissa had just gotten out of a messy breakup with her boyfriend Luke and Ryan was basically the man-whore of the school. He didn't like to get attached to girls, and girls didn't mind being used for sex, so it was a win-win situation. They had been best friends ever since seventh grade, and what do you know, five years later were still lab partners. They were in the Cohen's pool house, Marissa lounging on Ryan's bed like it was the most natural thing in the world and Ryan looking at her from the chair beside his bed. He saw her twirl a pencil in the air and rolled his eyes at her. In the five years that he'd known her, she'd just gotten more and more beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful.

"So…why are you studying again?" He asked, smiling at her from his place. She looked over at him with a lazy smile and shrugged.

"I don't know, I think I should be a good student for once. It is my last year, after all," She said, looking at him, her eyes sparkling their beautiful sparkle that he'd come to love. He'd come to love a lot of things about her; her smile when she was teasing, the light in her eyes when she looked at him, the way her hair fell into her eyes when she was sleeping, the sound of her voice waking him from a deep sleep. But he'd never tell her this because they were friends and friends didn't feel those things for each other. And he couldn't lose her as a friend.

"But senior year we're supposed to blow everything off," He said with a grin. She patted the spot next to her and he eagerly went to it. She gave him a book that she was supposed to be studying and she grabbed a journal and started to write notes. He watched her instead of reading like he was supposed to. He was defenseless when it came to staring at her working, eating, sleeping, well, anything really. He was just so fascinated by her every move, her every blink, her every breath. He wondered when exactly he had become so infatuated with her.

It had to have been freshman year when they went to homecoming together. He'd watched her dance, felt her body grind up against his during fast songs, and felt her body just pressed up against his gently during the slow. As he held her against him, he'd realized that things between them would never be simple because he was in love with his best friend. And he was going to tell her his feelings, he really was, but Luke had beat him to the punch and she started to go out with him for the rest of high school, until now. And as he watched her eyes furrowed together as she tried to study, he knew exactly what he wanted from her, from this relationship.

"We've blown things off for way too long now. Senior year is our year…I think we should make the most of it," She said, and the words meant more to him than she could've possibly known. How could she voice what he was feeling without even realizing it?

He mustered up all the courage inside of him and said, "Hey, Marissa?" She immediately looked up into his eyes and smiled, her own sparkling. "I.." But he couldn't finish. What if she didn't feel the same way? Things would be totally awkward. And how could he even be sure if she was feeling the same way as him? There was no definite sign now was there?

"What's wrong?" She asked, her eyes now curious. She reached for one of his hands and held it in her smaller one. He felt electricity work its way through his body and he couldn't remember feeling this way with anyone else…couldn't imagine feeling this way with anyone else.

He put on a fake smile and said, "Nothing." He looked down at the book, taking his hand from hers, and started to flip through it. He reached for the journal and she pulled it back. "Come on, I need to write something down!" He said, laughing at her attempt to keep the journal in her hands.

"No! That's my notes journal!" She said frantically.

"What, do you have naked pictures in here or something?" He asked amusedly, looking inside of it. "Come on, let me see it. I'm doing this for your own good." She still wouldn't budge so he climbed on top of her and started to tickle her. He reached for the pencil in her hand that she was keeping out of reach, his body pressing up against hers even more. She looked at him breathlessly, suddenly giving up the fight. She gulped and let go of the journal. He looked down and saw it open, the words, 'Mrs. I-Can't-Have-Fun.' He smiled a little and his heart beat sped up. 'Mrs. Ryan Atwood,' was written in there too, and a list of people she'd invite to their wedding. He looked at her, at the way she was blushing so deeply crimson that it looked like she had a bad sunburn, and leaned in and kissed her softly, throwing the pencil and journal onto the floor.

She put her hands around his neck, and then she just ran them through his thick blonde hair. He couldn't understand why she felt the same way, but he was so glad that the feelings were being returned. And he soon found that there was nothing better than kissing Marissa Cooper. He deepened the kiss, running his tongue along her bottom lip, sucking it softly, biting it gently. She moaned, the sound falling into his own mouth, and suddenly he couldn't take it anymore. He silently asked for entrance into her mouth with his tongue and was quickly granted access. He pressed his tongue against hers, let them do a small dance that he never thought would happen, and they both moaned and then laughed a little. He pulled back from the kiss, breathless, and rested his forehead against hers. "How long?" He asked, not needing to expand the question.

"I don't know…a part of me always has wanted this," She said, her voice shaky from her breathlessness. "I never thought you'd feel the same way though. I mean…we're friends and you never showed that you wanted anything more than me. Not to mention that women are, and I quote, 'just sex toys.'"

He grimaced at the memory of when he had stumbled into her room drunkenly and said that after she had told him she'd slept with Luke. His heart had been hurting and he didn't want to ever feel that way again. "That was only because I didn't think you'd want me. You're not a sex toy…in fact…" He looked into her blue-green eyes and softly said, "No sex for at least a month. I want to take you out, for real, not as friends. And I want to know what it's like to be in a relationship with someone. I want to be with you in every other way but that one. It would mean more."

She nodded and smiled, then leaned in and kissed him again and again, never tiring of his mouth against hers.

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Five years later, they were both twenty three and living together. The past five years had been a real roller coast for the both of them. They loved the high points, but hated the low points. They had actually broken up a few times, angry and bitter with each other…but they could never stay angry for too, too long. And besides, they were best friends. Romance or no romance, they couldn't completely ignore that. So even though they had their heartbreaking moments, they also had their perfect-couple times too, like now. They were living together and had been for a year now. Ryan couldn't believe that after everything, this was where they'd ended up; in their living room looking through a scrapbook of their friendship and how it progressed to a relationship. Marissa was sitting in between his legs and he had his arms wrapped around her possessively, his chin rested on her shoulder. In this position he could smell the coconut and vanilla from her shampoo, sweet to his nose.

"Remember this?" She asked, laughing and pointing to a picture of Ryan with blue hair and large sunglasses on. Her laughter filled their large apartment, music to his ears. He kissed her neck and laughed too, remembering that moment. He'd lost a bet with her that Seth and Summer, their two other friends, would end up dating by the end of the month. He'd said to wait a month and a few days, she'd said that it would take less than a month…and she won. He had to go to school with is hair dyed and large pink plastic sunglasses. He'd been the talk all over the school for the rest of the year. He got his own page in the yearbook and when they graduated, his picture was shown at the graduation party that Taylor Townsend had thrown for them.

"How could I forget?" He asked after he could control his breathing from the hard laughter. He looked at her, the way her eyes twinkled when she was around him, and couldn't believe that she was all his to love. Her smile radiating from her face brought a certain warmth to his life that he'd never known before he met her in Science Class their seventh grade year. He would have to make sure to send an invitation to their old teacher to their wedding. Assuming that she said yes.

He'd been planning the proposal for a long time now. He didn't want anything to ever come in between the two of them again, and getting married was the only way to be sure that he couldn't lose her. He had the hardest time trying to come up with something special for the actual proposal. He didn't want things between them to be cliché and overused, but he didn't want to do something that was so over the top that she'd laugh at him afterwards. He was pretty sure she'd say yes, but that nagging voice in the back of his head always reminded him that life wasn't certain and Marissa could be quite unpredictable at times. Simply getting down on his knee wouldn't suffice, so he had to do something else. Now he finally knew what.

All throughout his relationship, they had fought over pencils. He couldn't tell you why, but she was always stealing his pencils, and he was always stealing them back from her. It was an endless cycle and a rather stupid and pointless one, but it provided amusement for the both of them…and gave him a way to finally ask her to marry him. He'd looked in the phonebook and found a guy that would make him a custom pencil. Now all he had to do was leave so that Marissa would start snooping through his drawers and find it. He'd left it in an obvious play she'd look; his nightstand. She always messed around in that drawer for some reason. He'd left three pencils in there once and came home to see that there were no pencils but a little paper that said, 'I found your stash, haha! : )' He looked at his watch and kissed her neck softly, making her squirm in his arms. "I have to get to work, but we should go out and see a movie or something tonight when I get home."

She nodded and smiled, turning in his arms. She looked into his eyes, hers bright and cheery, and said, "Alright, I'll miss you." She leaned in and kissed him long and slow, letting her tongue mingle with his for a minute, before pulling back and getting off the couch so that he could get up as well.

He stood up, then lazily kissed her once again before leaving. When he got back home from his shift, he walked into the apartment and called out, "Marissa? Where are you?" He walked further into the apartment, but didn't hear anything. He walked into their bedroom and saw her sitting on their enormous king sized bed, reading a magazine or something. He looked at her, trying to see if by just a look she had seen what he'd left for her. He took off his jacket and smiled hesitantly when she didn't say anything. "Hey…" He looked at her and she didn't do anything, just smiled and nodded in his direction, then turned a couple of pages in her magazine. He took off his shoes and put his keys and wallet on top of the nightstand. He opened the drawer and saw that the pencil was missing. He looked at Marissa who was now glancing over at him with a slight smile on her face. He saw a piece of paper where the pencil had been and read the words, 'I found your pencil, haha! And my answer is YES!!'

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Six months later, Ryan and Marissa were both twenty four and engaged. They sat in the living room of the Cohen house, Ryan holding Marissa against his body, pencil and paper in hands. They were deciding who would be invited to the wedding, and Kirsten and Sandy were in the kitchen making something for lunch. The past six months had been lived happily, romantically, and they were both satisfied with their relationship. Days were spent working, cuddling, wedding planning, and just generally together. Nights were spent having romantic dinners, watching old sappy chick-flicks (totally Marissa's idea), and making love to the point of exhaustion. Marissa proudly displayed the beautiful engagement ring on her left hand at pretty much all times, and Ryan proudly displayed Marissa to the whole world, holding her tightly against him at all times.

They were currently having a debate on whether or not they should invite Marissa's Uncle Robert should be invited to the wedding. "We've both only met him once when we were fifteen. He smelled like a dog and had tons of hairs all over his clothes. Why would we invited him?" Ryan asked, looking at her and rolling his eyes.

"Because he was the first person to say that he knew that we'd end up together in the end," Marissa said with a nod. She looked at him and shrugged. "I think he should be on the guest list. He can sit next to Aunt Cindy."

"He only said that because he was drunk. Right after he did that, he started reciting lines from , _It's a Wonderful Life_. An hour later he thought I was some guy named, Toby," Ryan said exasperatedly. "He is not coming."

Marissa giggled a little and when Ryan glared at her, she gave him a wide smile. He shook his head and she leaned in and kissed him softly on the mouth, knowing that she'd get her way either way. "He fought in Vietnam. He's had a rough life. The woman that he fell in love with ended up getting pregnant with some other guys' baby and didn't give him any explanation. He deserves to see that life and love can have a happy ending." She pulled away from him and looked into his eyes, giving that puppy dog look "Please, for me? I'll make it worth your while." She grinned at him seductively.

He sighed and handed over the pencil that he'd proposed to her with. "Fine, but you better make it up to me in a really good way. Like…anything that I want." He grinned at her and pulled her even closer to him now, if that was possible at all.

She wrote down her Uncle's name and giggled happily. Sandy and Kirsten had watched the whole thing from a distance. Kirsten turned to Sandy and smiled happily, thrilled with joy at the thought of her son getting married to the woman that he loved. "I always knew they'd end up together."

Sandy grinned at her and said, "Of course they did. It was obvious to just about everyone."

She leaned into her husband and asked, "When did they start realizing it themselves?"

Sandy shrugged and said, "I don't know, but Ryan's always saying that it started and ended with a pencil."


End file.
